NOAA no longer predicting Topsail Inlet tides

Thursday

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has stopped offering tide predictions for Topsail Inlet

TOPSAIL ISLAND -- Topsail Inlet is no longer among the local spots for which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) offers tide predictions.

In years past, NOAA provided predictions for tides in the inlet in Pender County and were published on the weather page in the StarNews. But last July, the government organization removed it from its coverage. Dianna Parker, who works for NOAA's tides and current office, said the data being used to issue the predictions was from the 1920s and began to affect the results.

"Because the inlet or marsh has likely changed since then, we found that the predictions were affected and off by about an hour," she wrote in an email.

Parker said NOAA has no plans to collect tide data to update predictions for the inlet. But she said said two locations close by can be used to gauge tides -- Wrightsville Beach and the Ocean City Fishing Pier in North Topsail Beach.

"There are only a few minutes difference between the tide predictions at these stations and either one could be used to provide predictions for Topsail Inlet," she said.

To find tide predictions for the area, visit tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov.

Reporter Hunter Ingram can be reached at 910-343-2327 or Hunter.Ingram@StarNewsOnline.com.